Tiny Plastics, Big Problem: The Hidden Risk of Plastic Pouches for Baby Food <\/a>conducted laboratory testing on Nestl\u00e9\u2019s Gerber and Danone\u2019s Happy Baby Organics infant nutrition.<\/p>\nThe report notes the presence of microplastic particles, and \u201ca range of chemicals\u201d were found in every sample of packaging and food analyzed. According to the report, this suggests that the plastic packaging may be the source of contamination.<\/p>\n
Graham Forbes, global plastics campaign lead at Greenpeace USA, comments: \u201cThis study is a wake-up call for parents everywhere, who trust these brands to put their kids first. Plastic-dependent companies like Nestl\u00e9 and Danone owe families a clear answer: what are they doing to eliminate microplastics and chemicals from the products they sell to babies?\u201d<\/p>\n
In a recent conversation with Packaging Insights, Nerida Kelton, the VP of sustainability and safe food at the World Packaging Organisation, explains that packaging needs to be functional first, especially in the case of sensitive food products.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though we\u2019re material agnostic, it\u2019s important to understand that some polymers are, at this moment in time, the best solution for food safety, human health, protecting, containing, preserving, and extending shelf life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Microplastic exposure\u00a0<\/p>\n
Greenpeace highlights that a key finding of the report is that for every gram of baby food tested, researchers found up to 54 microplastic particles in Gerber pouches and up to 99 particles in those by Happy Baby Organics pouches.<\/p>\n
This is said to be equivalent to as many as 270 (Gerber) and 495 (Happy Baby Organics) microplastics per teaspoon.<\/p>\n
The study further estimates a total of more than 5,000 particles in a single Gerber pouch and more than 11,000 particles in a Happy Baby Organics pouch. The plastic-associated chemicals present in the packaging and food include a potential endocrine disruptor in the Gerber samples tested.<\/p>\n
The findings are said to suggest a link between the PE used to line the plastic pouches and some of the microplastics found in the baby food.<\/p>\n
Greenpeace points out that plastic squeeze pouches have become the dominant packaging format for infant food worldwide, which it says is the result of marketing, alongside a lack of options. According to the global organization, this baby food packaging format is the fastest-growing globally, at 8.18% year on year, and making up 37.15% of the 2025 global market by volume.<\/p>\n
Plastic pouches now exceed all other forms of baby food packaging, including traditional glass jars. The organization adds that infants and toddlers may be more vulnerable to microplastic exposures as their organs are developing and their higher consumption of food, relative to body weight.<\/p>\n
A recent study<\/a> by the research consultancy Earth Action has revealed that, annually, around 1,000 metric tons of microplastics migrate from packaging into food, including particles small enough to enter human cell barriers and potentially interact with biological systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New research commissioned by Greenpeace has discovered microplastics in baby food sold in plastic pouches by Nestl\u00e9 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[126],"tags":[37303,37305,199,37304],"class_list":["post-69595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nestle","tag-greenpeace","tag-microplastics","tag-nestle","tag-world-packaging-organization"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116611952574288109","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}